Save Batteries With The Nyko Balance Board Energy Pak

In a household of five rabid Wii fanatics, we really rack up the hours on our games. That’s especially true for new games, and our Wii Fit balance board has already absorbed more hours of foot-time than I would have thought possible in just a week of use.

The Wii balance board requires batteries, just like any other game controller, and you know how quickly your devices can suck those AAs dry! Well, now there’s a handy rechargeable solution for the balance board: the NYKO Energy Pak.

The Energy Pak is small and easy to use. The lithium-ion battery fits flush into the existing battery compartment in the board. It’s attached to the charger port, which nestles snugly into the contours of the bottom of the board, and does not interfere with gaming.

I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the initial charge was completed, and we were playing on the fully-juiced board in just a few hours. The Energy Pak comes with a 10 foot cord, so you can play while it’s charging, if needed. I prefer to charge it near the outlet and disconnect it for play, because I don’t need anything on the floor to trip me up while I’m trying to keep up with my Wii Fit step class.

The bottom line? The NYKO Energy Pak is easy to use, and for about $20, well worth the money.

Prevent Big Headaches: Back Up Wii Saves to SD Card

[This post was guest blogged by Heather, of GeekMomMashup.]

My family had a Wii crisis recently. I am sharing this experience with you now as a cautionary tale, so you can prevent this from happening in your own home.

My daughter just turned three, and she loves to “play” on the Wii like the rest of us. She is usually happy to hold a spare Wiimote while someone else plays a game. She is skilled in playing point, click, and drag type games on the PC, and she has figured out how to point and click through the Wii menus, too. Recently, she was left alone on the couch with the Wii all to herself. I was in the kitchen, and I could hear her talking happily to herself. She was clicking through menus, checking out the Mii channel, the weather, etc. This went on for maybe 10 minutes, and then we turned off the system and had dinner.

The next day, my boys (ages 8 and 6) turned on the Wii to continue their work on Super Mario Galaxy. They had nearly finished the last level, and went to load their saved game when… “What? Where is it? MOM!”

It was gone. We checked our other games, too. I had finally achieved Pro status on Wii bowling, but now my sparkly ball was gone. My husband had spent countless hours shooting virus-infected baddies to complete about 75% of Resident Evil 4, but now? Gone! We checked the Data Management screen. Every saved game had been deleted. Aaaahhh!

Apparently, the little princess had clicked into the Data Management menu, and deleted all of the memory blocks with saved game information. Boy, was she thorough! We found later that she had also deleted some of our extra Miis. The moral of the story? Don’t let this happen to you! Unfortunately, memory blocks cannot be locked with parental controls. So, if you value the time you’ve spent on your games, you might want to back up your saves onto an SD card.

You don’t need a special Wii SD card, as the very same kind you use for photos will work just fine. To save you the trouble of looking up the instructions in your Wii manual, here is the abridged version of:

How to back up saved Wii games to an SD card.

1. To reach Wii Settings and Data Management, select the Wii icon on the bottom left corner of the Wii Menu.
2. Select Data Management from the Wii Options screen.
3. Select Save Data from the Data Management screen.
4. Select the Wii option to view all data saved in the console’s internal memory.
5. Select the data you want to back up; then select Copy.

Big Wii headache averted! Don’t forget to store your backup SD card in a safe place.